


Technical and Engineering Program, or, Skye Gets Stuck in TaEP

by WakeUpDreaming



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, M/M, Skinny!Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 02:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2174826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WakeUpDreaming/pseuds/WakeUpDreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye's been swapped from foster family to foster family, but she's starting sophomore year in an entirely new district, an entirely new school. Her best bet? Find the tech club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Technical and Engineering Program, or, Skye Gets Stuck in TaEP

**Author's Note:**

> No, this isn't the promised Nataskye fic, but it's a little glimpse into who I feel like everyone would be like if they went to the sort of ~progressive high school I did. Also, it's an excuse to do altered backstories, and you all know how much I love writing school AUs from The Rumor of Us. I hope you enjoy!

The only worse than being a freshman was being a newbie sophomore. At least when you're a freshman everybody else in your class is miserable and confused along with you.

Skye's awkward and miserable all on her own. Stupid foster families making her relocate right after she finally felt comfortable at a school. She sits alone, in the front seat, of the bus, her foster siblings all being so much younger that they don’t go into school until much later.

Skye takes a deep breath as the school shows up, and the bus driver offers her the first smile she’s seen all day. It makes her feel a little bit better.

She hauls her laptop into the school - when most children have a security blanket or a stuffed animal they love, Skye has her laptop - and has a backpack full of bare necessities. No lunch, because she qualifies for a free one.

She only hopes she won't have to do this alone for too long. There's got to be some other tech nerd here. And, as luck would have it, the Technology and Engineering Program (or the TaEP, as she'll later call it) is meeting that afternoon, and she manages to ask her foster mom to pick her up when it ends at 5:30.

School goes quickly. Skye’s always been okay with academics, but lately she’s been thinking about how it doesn’t quite seem like it’s helping. But her teachers are nice, and there’s helpful sophomores guiding her through some of the more difficult classrooms. Once she finds it, she eats lunch in the cafeteria with a nice girl and boy from her Biology class, Jemma and Leo, who have too-big smiles and talk a mile a minute.

She feels at home with them, and she even feels comfortable in gym when the teacher, Ms. May, actually listens when Skye tells her she doesn’t know the rules of soccer, and lets her sit out a game before having her jump in.

After a surprisingly successful day, Skye walks in the room she’s told TaEP is in, feeling a bit confident, until she realizes that there's only three other people in the room.

A girl with dark red hair, legs up on the counter as she almost lazily clicks at the keys of a desktop. A boy, dark haired with ridiculous facial hair and something that looks like a broken computer in front of him.

And a guy in the corner, the one she'd accidentally bumped into while she was trying to find the cafeteria. She'd risked asking for directions, and he had just half stared at her for a beat too long before gesturing with his right thumb in a slightly vague direction before leaving. He did give accurate directions, though.

"Who's this chick?" asks the kid with the facial hair, leaning against the table and not even looking up.

:"I'm Skye," she says, "I'm new, and I - "

"This is kind of an exclusive club," says Weird Beard, finally looking up at her. "You know, for upperclassmen?"

Skye frowns. "Where's it say that?"

Weird Beard looks stumped for a moment.

"Ignore him," says the quiet boy in the corner, "You're more than welcome."

The girl with red hair eyes her. "You like tech stuff?"

Skye nods. "I'm strangely good at it. Like hacking.” She smiles. “I’m kind of a badass when it comes to hacking."

Weird Beard snorts. "This one's humble."

"You're one to talk, Stark," says the quiet boy, "or was it not you who posted a banner talking about how you're '9 inches long, always going strong' on the front lawn?"

Skye snorts.

Weird Beard - Stark - looks up at her. "Got something to say?"

She shrugs. "I was just thinking that, for a tech guy, I'm surprised you didn't think of hacking into the school's web page through a ghost router to hide your IP address and making that nonsense the homepage banner."

Stark blinks, and the girl with red hair ducks her head to try and hide her laughter. "She's right, Tony," says the girl with red hair, "except you just can't figure out how to break through the firewall."

"If I can prove to you that I could add something to the homepage banner, from the school's wifi, and without getting caught, will you let me in?" Skye asks, because she hates being doubted, and she never backs down from a challenge. Even if it's one she's come up with.

"You don't have to do that," says the quiet boy. He stands up and walks toward her, brushing some of his overlong hair out of his face with his left hand. It's then that she realizes it's a prosthetic, something high tech and metal she's never seen before. Her first response is to stare, because it's fascinating, and she'd love to know how it works, but her second response is to look up to meet his eyes and let him know that she sees him as a person first.

She's had enough experience being seen as a thing.

"I'm James," he says, holding out his right hand to shake. "James Barnes."

Skye snorts involuntarily, and then freezes when James stares at her like she just shot a puppy. "No! Not - it's just, Barnes. James Barnes." When the realization isn’t quite on James’ face, she makes finger guns.

Thank god James just laughs. “Yeah,” he says, “I’ve gotten that a lot before.”

“You could call him Bucky,” says Tony, winking, “that’s what his boyfriend calls him.”

James rolls his eyes. “Stark, the next time you talk shit about me and Steve, I’m telling Pepper about that love letter you keep with you all the time that you can’t force yourself to give her.”

“I could post that on the website,” Skye offers, and the girl with the red hair laughs so hard the chair shifts.

“Yeah, you’re good,” she says. “I’m Natasha. Nat, if you want.”

“Tasha, if you’re nasty,” Tony adds, but he’s immediately shut up when James hits him in the back of the head with his left hand. “Hey!” Tony whines. “I made that for you.”

“Yeah, and you earned that,” says James. “Shut up and stop messing with the new kid.”

“I think she needs to earn her place,” says Tony, turning his chair around and straddling it. “So prove it, newbie. Get going.”

Natasha sighs. “Tony –”

“You know what?” says Skye. “I’m up for the challenge. And I think,” she says, pulling out her laptop and looking Tony dead in the face, “you’re going to come to regret it.”

Tony scoffs. “Big words for someone who probably got lost going to the cafeteria.”

Skye raises an eyebrow at James, who shakes his head, looking just as bewildered as Skye felt hearing Tony say that.

“Yeah, I saw it,” says Tony, rolling his eyes. “Nerd.”

Ignoring Tony, Skye types in silence for a while, and tries to hide her grin when she realizes she’s hacked this exact same type of firewall multiple times. It’s the same as it was at the Starbucks down the road from her old foster parent’s house. She’s in the system, disguised, in less than ten minutes.

She’s working so hard that she forgets where she is. It’s nice, hacking. She gets to zone out and think about one thing.

She’s a little thrown out of it when there’s a noise. After a few seconds, she recognizes it as a knock on the door and an incredibly thin, short boy, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes that look genuinely kind, peeks in. “Bucky?” he asks. “Just about ready?” His eyes scan and land on Skye. “Oh, I’m sorry. That’s really rude of me.” He steps in the door, the smile turning almost sheepish. “I’m Steve,” and he lights up even further when he says, “Bucky’s boyfriend.”

“You two are so sappy it hurts,” says Natasha, but there’s a sort of wistful fondness on her face when she says it. “That’s Skye.”

“Hello, Skye.” Steve, who probably would just barely be taller than Skye is, comes over and shakes her hand with the strength of a man twice her height.

“Hi,” she says. “I’m hacking the school’s website to prove my place in the group.”

“And I’m pretending I didn’t hear that,” Steve says, wincing a little.

“Steve’s the senior class president,” James explains. “I’m his classy and sassy first lady.”

“And he’s the best,” says Steve, standing on his tiptoes to kiss James on the cheek.

“Can you two not?” Tony asks. “I have a hacker to test here.”

“I’m not doing this so you can use me as your little minion,” says Skye, rolling her eyes. She makes the decision not to tell Tony that she got past the firewall right after Steve had walked into the room, and has now made the school server’s cursor a little star reading “Tiny Tony.”

She spends a few seconds watching it leave little sparkles in its wake as she swirls her finger across the touch pad in her laptop.

And she filtered the hack through about three different places. Again, she’s good.

Steve, effortlessly and like he’s done it his whole life, slides into Bucky’s lap, who wraps his arms around his waist and rests his head on Steve’s shoulder. “So what brings you here, Skye?” Steve asks. “Are you a freshman?”

Skye shakes her head. “Nah,” she says, pretending to type, “transfer from a school about a million miles away. I’m a sophomore.”

There’s a weird look exchanged between James and Natasha.

“Can it, Barnes,” Natasha says sternly, even though James hadn’t said a word.

“Well, we’re all seniors,” says Steve, as if the look hadn’t happened.

“Super senior,” Tony singsongs.

“Doesn’t count,” says Steve, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t fail out of senior year, I just had to repeat eighth grade because of that pneumonia problem.”

“Oh my god,” Natasha interrupts. Her expression is almost reverent as she turns from the computer screen to Skye. “You are a literal goddess.”

Skye shrugs. “I do my best.”

“What?” asks Tony, looking flustered. “What’d she do? What’s…” He trails off as Natasha pushes her chair over toward Skye. He starts making horrified muttering sounds as he wiggles the mouse.

“How did you do that?” she asks. “I can’t even do that!”

Skye shrugs. “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get around rules. You get good at it.”

Natasha grins at her, and Skye feels something flip flop in her chest as she brushes a piece of hair from Skye’s forehead. The touch is like a spark.

Their eyes are still locked as Natasha, after lingering a little longer than she needs to, says, “You’re really good at it.”

“Hello?!” exclaims Tony. “Reputation dissolving over here? They’re going to think it was me!”

Skye shrugs. “Well of course they would,” says Skye, feigning innocence. “Who would ever expect the innocent new girl? Besides,” she adds with a smirk, “it’s got your name written all over it.”

Tony stares in absolute horror as everybody else gets up to high five and congratulate Skye.

The look she gets from Natasha is her favorite though, and a close second is when Steve says, “I like her. You guys better keep her.”

Natasha shrugs. “I plan on it.”

That flip flopping thing happens again. Skye decides she likes it.


End file.
